Pubs pay the price for David Cameron’s U-turn

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It was not only the health lobby that was angry at David Cameron’s feeble
ditching of the coalition’s promise to impose a minimum price for alcohol.
The pub trade was also bitterly disappointed.

Pub operators had hoped that a minimum price would help to halt the dramatic
shift in drink sales from the on-trade to supermarkets. Only half of all
beer sales are now consumed in pubs, down from about 90 per cent 30 years
ago, and thousands of pubs have closed, with huge job losses.

The big grocery chains use cheap alcohol as a way of enticing shoppers into